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“Highly recommended, both as a critically presented state-of-the-art discussion and as an account of how one’s personal/political history informs the process of scientific inquiry.”—Choice

This classic anthropological study debunks the many myths behind the idea of “natural” male superiority. Drawing on extensive historical and cross-cultural research, Eleanor Burke Leacock shows that claims of male superiority are based on carefully constructed myths with no factual historical basis. She also documents numerous historical examples of egalitarian gender relations.

Eleanor Burke Leacock (1922–1987) was well-known for her ethnographic work among primitive societies, and her research is still a formative influence among feminist anthropologists.

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Table of Contents

Preface 1Introduction: Engels and the History of Women's Oppression 13Women in an Egalitarian Society: The Montagnais-Naskapi of CanadaThe Montagnais-Naskapi 33Status Among the Montagnais-Naskapi of Labrador 39Montagnais Women and the Jesuit Program for Colonization 43Matrilocality Among the Montagnais-Naskapi 63Social Evolution: From Egalitarianism to OppressionIntroduction to Lewis Henry Morgan, Ancient Society, Parts I, II, III, IV 85Women's Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution 133Review of Evelyn Reed, Women's Evolution 183Myths of Male Dominance: Discussion and DebateSociety and Gender 197Review of Margaret Mead, Male and Female 205Structuralism and Dialectics 209The Changing Family and Levi-Strauss, or Whatever Happened to Fathers? 222Ideologies of Sex: Archetypes and Stereotypes Eleanor Leacock and June Nash 242Review of Steven Goldberg, The Inevitability of Patriarchy Eleanor Leacock and Steven Goldberg 264Social Behavior, Biology, and the Double Standard 280Conclusion: Politics and the Ideology of Male DominancePolitical Ramifications of Engels' Argument on Women's Subjugation 305Women, Development, and Anthropological Facts and Fiction 310Bibliography 317Index 335